My recent Montana trip only served to confirm what I’d come to believe about the new generation of sticky rubber soled wading boots.

They’re better than ever – and ideal for some applications – but not quite ready to take on the toughest wading challenges… unaided.

What's next for the Underground's sticky rubber wading boot test? Grip, baby. Grip.

Because I’m sick and tired concerned about the whining safety of the Underground’s Crack Team of Wading Boot Testers (how many emails complaining about compound fractures should one guy have to endure), the small stack of rubber-soled wading boots are facing some alterations.

Simms was nice enough to send along a set of their carbide-tipped screw-in studs, and the Korkers can be equipped with a set of studded rubber “Kling-on” soles – and also felt & studded felt.

So here’s the gig.

One of the Simms soles will be on the receiving end of studs, and in a daring, in-stream, boot-to-boot comparison, we’ll see how that boot compares to the other unstudded sole.

The chameleon-esque Korkers will be outfitted with a mixture of studded rubber, felt, and studded felt, and we’ll see what happens in our direct, boot-to-boot comparison.

The Patagonia Riverwalkers may remain unaltered for a while – the “control” group for sticky rubber.

Slowing the testing a little bit is a busy work schedule, a couple weeks of 90+ degree temperatures (that’s a long string of hot for up here), and an ongoing desire to fly fish the little stuff (backcountry streams and lakes).

Accordingly, I plan to enlist the help of some of the local attention-craving helpful guides.

There’s more to come on the equipment front, though things move slowly here because we foolishly actually test gear before we write a review – a process which results in more accuracy, but less throughput.

It’s just how we roll.

Coming Up

Proving that nothing interests people more than the fear that someone’s getting something they’re not, my review of the Redington fly rod & reel combo triggered inquiries from a pair of fly rod companies. And yes, I may enlist the help of the Undergrounders in deciding what rods to test.

Then there’s the story which is going to blow the lid off the fly fishing… err… fly fishing hat industry.

In other words, through years of testing, we’ve identified the World’s Best All-Around Warmweather Fly Fishing Hat, and because we’re externally validated nice enough to share, we’re going to let the world know it.

Some days, it’s just plain great to be us.

See you [teetering, windmilling, and falling] on the river, Tom Chandler.